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#2 (permalink) Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:57 am miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus) |
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2 is correct, 1 is incorrect. To fail goes with an infinitive of the action you did not or could not do; to miss goes with a substantive noun, the thing you did not catch. If you want to use the verb "to miss", it should be "she missed her usual bus", miss cannot go with a verb or -ing form. Unless it has a different meaning, as in "she missed talking to her father": that means she disliked the fact that she could no longer talk to her father like before. |
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Cerberus™ I'm here quite often ;-)

Joined: 11 Feb 2009 Posts: 774
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#3 (permalink) Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:27 am miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus) |
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. 'Miss' does not necessarily take a 'substantive' noun (whatever you mean by that, Cerberus-- certainly not just concrete things and people!), of course; it often takes the -ing verb form as a noun: I miss dancing with her. I missed seeing that movie. . _________________ Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's |
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Mister Micawber Language Coach

Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 7440 Location: Yokohama, Japan
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#4 (permalink) Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:36 am miss OR fail (She missed/failed catching her usual bus) |
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| Mister Micawber wrote: |
. 'Miss' does not necessarily take a 'substantive' noun (whatever you mean by that, Cerberus-- certainly not just concrete things and people!), of course; it often takes the -ing verb form as a noun: I miss dancing with her. I missed seeing that movie. . |
I apologize if I oversimplified, I meant to respond to this simple sentence about missing the bus. That's why I said "unless...", of course it may be different when "to miss" does not mean roughly the same as "to fail". |
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Cerberus™ I'm here quite often ;-)

Joined: 11 Feb 2009 Posts: 774
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| You will be the death of me! - what does that mean? | Future: I'm taking him to the zoo. vs I'm gong to take him to the zoo. |